To obtain two-dimensional radar images of moving vehicles is desirable to support, for example, automated target recognition (ATR), automated target classification (ATC) or feature-aided tracking (FAT). The creation of tactically useful two-dimensional radar images of moving vehicles from airborne or spaceborne platforms has been challenging. For example, the presence of uncompensated residual motion errors destroys the coherence of the radar data and can result in severe radar image degradation.
The yield and/or quality of tactically useful two-dimensional radar images of moving vehicles has historically been very low and hence ATR, ATC and FAT for moving vehicles has instead concentrated on exploitation of one-dimensional high range resolution (HRR) profiles. Unfortunately, these one-dimensional HRR profiles do not contain as much information as two-dimensional radar images, they decorrelate more rapidly over viewing aspect and time than two-dimensional (2D) radar images, and extensive training data must be continually collected.
The background art is characterized by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,924,229 and 5,818,383; the disclosures of which patents are incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein. The background art is also characterized by the following publications: C. V. Jakowatz Jr., D. E. Wahl, P. H. Eichel, D. G. Ghiglia, P. A. Thompson, Spotlight Mode Synthetic Aperture Radar: A Signal Processing Approach, ISBN 0-7923-9677-4 Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1996: and W. G. Carrera, R. S. Goodman, R. M. Majewski, Spotlight Synthetic Aperture Radar Signal Processing Algorithms, ISBN 0-89006-728-7, Artech House Inc., 1995.